“SOUTH OF 80” SNAPSHOT: Six Row Brewing Company

In the days leading up to our “South of 80″ event at The Green Lady, we wanted to make you a little more familiar with the attending breweries, most of which are being made available in Chicago for the first time. Today we take a look atSt. Louis’ Six Row Brewing Company.

Part of the growing craft beer scene in St. Louis, Six Row opened in October last year and has quickly grown to be one of the most prominent brewpubs in town, with local food magazine Sauce even calling their whiskey barrel porter an instant “gotta-have-it beer.” We managed to get our hands on that whiskey-barrel porter and can back up Sauce’s big talk; it’s very smooth and chalked full of whiskey flavor while clocking in at an easy drinking 6% ABV.

Named for both the six people involved in created the brewery and the sixrow style of malt used in brewing, Six Row distributes around St. Louis and in the Metro East area of Illinois, and can even be found as far north as Effingham – but for one night only, the beer, the brewer and one of the owners will be north of 80.

We’ve sampled the beers to be offered from tap pours and bombers, but even we haven’t had any of these offerings on cask – and that’s exactly how they’ll be poured on Tuesday. These beers will be a rare treat for any beer lover, even for those who may be familiar with their wares downstate. We’re looking forward to seeing what the following will be like:

Double IPA: This unfiltered and amazingly well-balanced DIPA will be offered on tap AND in a cask – with some dry-hopping added for good measure. This beer is definitely no palate-wrecker, which is quite a surprise, as it’s brewed with two pounds of Columbus, Chinook and Centennial hops per barrel. Any one decision made in the brewery could have pushed this beer into being over-the-top, but a delicate hand and a little bit of restraint made this a very unique offering in the style. On cask, however, we can only imagine how smooth, rich…and dangerous…this beer could be.

Vanilla Porter: Ever since the days of Prairie Rock in Elgin I’ve had a special place in my heart for vanilla beers. We tried their strong porter which we found pleasantly flavored with a peanut butter taste on the back-end, and not too hefty for the style. We’re trying not to get our hopes up for how awesome adding vanilla and putting it on a beer engine will make it…but we’re not succeeding on that front.

Whale: This wheat, pale ale is a homebrew concoction of sorts. This was the first beer brewed at Six Row. And there were just enough ingredients lying around to make about a half-batch of a pale ale and a half-batch of a wheat beer. The ingredients were thrown into the brew kettle – and Whale was born. Grassy hop flavors and a bit of lemon rind couple with a smooth body and slightly bitter finish to make this a great beer for summer.

Currently in the midst of American Craft Beer Week, Six Row is offering up beers like a strawberry ale, a licorice porter and a peppercorn DIPA to the lucky citizens of St. Louis, so we’re exceptionally lucky to have the brewer and an owner of Six Row in Chicago for this event, with such unique beer.